McHenry County sign shop supervisor retires after 40+ years with MCDOT and 11,000 signs

McHenry County drivers have likely seen adopt-a-highway signs around the county.

The person who designed them, sign shop supervisor Andrew Rose, is retiring from the McHenry County Division of Transportation after a career spanning over four decades, the highlights of which include getting computers to make signs and the blizzard of 2011.

The adopt-a-highway signs feature a rainbow with a road leading up to it, for which Rose said he got the idea from similar signs in Wisconsin.

Rose said he designed the sign in the early to mid-2000s, and the County Board loved the design and signed off on it.

The old adopt-a-highway signs were a generic green and white, Rose said, but the group who adopted the stretch of road was also on the sign. Now, the signs have two parts, which saves the county money since they don’t have to replace the entire sign any time the group adopting a stretch of highway changes, Rose said.

But adopt-a-highway signs are only one part of Rose’s job. In about 30 years as sign shop supervisor, he oversaw the maintenance of more than 11,000 highway signs along county highways and all the pavement markings on county roads.

But his time with the division of transportation goes back even further, having been hired full time at the Division of Transportation in 1982.

The adopt-a-highway signs were the primary ones Rose designed, but he also took inspiration from a sign in Lake County when drivers are coming up to a signal and have a clear line of sight. The advanced street name signs are similar to Lake County’s and have a small picture of a traffic signal and white lettering on a green background.

But most of the signs are regulated, Rose said.

Rose said he also likes big signs like the ones people drive under at intersections.

Inspections of the county’s signs happen every day, Rose said, and each November, the Division of Transportation inspects the signs at night, checking for egg damage, vandalism or dirt and oils not visible during the day.

Rose began working summers in high school and continued to come back for summers when he was in college.

Ed Markison, who is a maintenance superintendent at the county, said he started at the DOT in 1980 and has known Rose for 45 years. He said Rose was a great coworker.

He recalled one winter early on his tenure when he was out in the middle of nowhere and the it was really cold outside. He said he started to get cold and the truck he was driving also got cold, but Rose was by a few minutes later.

“Back then, we did everything,” Rose said, later adding today there’s different crews for things such as maintenance and signs, among other things.

Rose said he grew up farming, enjoyed being outside and found he also enjoyed highway work. He found when he was a maintenance supervisor, he liked being hands-on, coaching and helping crew members. He said he tried to lead by example.

In his time away from work, Rose got into bird taxidermy but eventually switched to woodworking. Among some of his projects include making some of the furniture in his office, and he said woodworking “keeps me busy every day.”

He makes custom pieces for people, making things like wooden dogs for people.

He’s got a couple of craft shows coming up, but he’s also looking forward to this winter. He said he hasn’t had a winter vacation in 43 years, and is looking forward to that. He said he has plans to visit his brother in Arizona and go on a Norwegian blues cruise in March, adding he’s wanted to go to Norway.

In 1996, he was promoted to sign shop supervisor, and did some research on a software system called Gerber that would enable the sign crew to make signs digitally.

He asked for the software, and his efforts to get the software and a vinyl printer was an introduction to digital signmaking. Now signs can be made in just a few minutes.

Hans Varga, the Division of Transportation public information officer, said he’ll request adopt-a-highway signs, which aren’t necessarily urgent. He said in his experience, it takes a couple of days from requesting a sign to it being installed.

During the 2011 blizzard, Rose worked overnight, and said he had three phone lines ringing constantly.

During the blizzard, a patient had a heart attack south of Union, and township crews were waiting for the morning to go out and clear the roads.

Authorities called the DOT and asked if they could clear the roads so an ambulance could get through. The roads were cleared, the ambulance got through and the patient survived, Rose said.

“We did anything we had to do” to help the public, Rose said.

Rose, who said he had a rewarding career, had his official last day Monday.

Varga said Rose has “been a stellar example” of what the division strives to do.